Creating a Sport Historian’s Life Story Narrative in Society

Abstract

This narrative relayed life story experiences of a South African sports historian. Written in the first person, it related how academic, employment, schooling, sport, and political experiences laid a foundation for sport historical engagement with the world. Individual names and places, not commonly used in grand narratives, or those who function below the national were highlighted throughout the text. These were people and places that may be regarded as marginal or subalteran and largely ignored in present dominant narratives. Therefore, the reader gets a glimpse of the South African Senior Schools Sports Association, South African Amateur Athletics Board, Teachers’ League of South Africa, University of the Western Cape. Local areas such as Blouvlei and the village of Wellington are also visited. There was a deliberate attempt to avoid statistics because the black historical experience was largely ignored in official accounts. Throughout the narrative, a relational plot was utilized that sought significant relationships between the historian and others. The narrative thus does not follow a linear projection because these relationships affect the sportsperson at different times in his or life sometimes being unaware of their existence. Instead, places and spaces in Cape Town that impacted on the shaping of a sport historian were emphasized.     

Subjectivity and temporality in literary narratives about sports

Abstract

This article explores the concept of embodied subjectivity in literary narratives about sport. While embodied subjectivity has been central to the methodology of sociologists of sport in recent years, it is also manifested in complex and fascinating ways in a special kind of literary sports narrative. Using narrative strategies developed by novelists in the early twentieth century, the authors discussed here aim to do more than simply describe sporting experience. They recount the deep physical, emotional, and psychic transformation of the self through athletic training and competition. They represent the sporting self as a construct layered over time through inclination, repetition, and habit. They characterize competition as a felt, embodied, and even sometimes disembodied experience. The lived experience of sport cannot be captured in simple narratives. The literariness of these narratives enables their authors to portray convincingly that lived experience.     

认知失调与运动员自我损耗:自我肯定的补偿作用

探讨认知失调对运动员自我损耗可能存在的影响作用,同时,检验价值肯定与属性肯定对自我损耗的补偿作用及自我概念清晰性的中介效 应。采用自我损耗双任务范式进行试验研究,分别由60 名运动员先完成5 min 认知失调任务,然后分别完成5 min 价值肯定和属性肯定,最后完成 Stroop 任务。结果发现,认知失调较无认知失调在Stroop 任务不一致反应时上表现更差,表明认知失调使运动员产生了自我损耗。自我肯定对自我损 耗补偿作用的研究发现：在认知失调情况下,价值肯定相对于属性肯定和无肯定在Stroop 任务一致和不一致错误数上出现更少的错误数,属性肯定 和无肯定在这2 个任务成绩上差异不显著;在无认知失调情况下,不同自我肯定对自我损耗均无补偿作用。表明,价值肯定对认知失调产生的自我损 耗具有补偿作用。进一步研究发现,自我概念清晰性在价值肯定与自我损耗间起部分中介作用,即价值肯定部分通过提高自我概念清晰性减少自我 损耗。     

Changing the game in Nigeria? Appropriating Internet and web 2.0 for sport communication

Historically, sports journalists have been the ones who predominately shape and define dominant narrative discourse of local and global sports. But, with the advent of social media and internet technologies, this is no longer the case. The digital media technologies now allow athletes, fans and sports organizations to impose their own narrative frames on sporting events in the real time. This has changed the tenor and tone of sport communication. With Shooting Stars Sports club of Ibadan, a legendary and pacesetter football club in Nigeria, as its case study, this paper examines why and how football clubs are appropriating social media and web technologies for information dissemination and live match commentaries in the Nigerian context.     

Lived experience and community sport coaching: A phenomenological investigation

Coaching in the participation domain is the act of coaching participants that are less intensely engaged in sport than performance orientated athletes. This form of coaching is a popular activity occurring in community settings such as schools or sport clubs, and it is often undertaken with a broad range of social and health outcomes in mind. The experiences and practices of the large army of ‘community coaches’¹ have been under-explored in comparison to those of elite performance coaches who focus on competitive success and dominate much academic research. This study focuses on the little known world of the community coach. Drawing on the philosophy of phenomenologists such as Husserl, and in particular the methodology of Van Manen, the study explored the lived experiences of a single case study community coach. Derived from semi-structured interviews and in keeping with Van Manen's methodology, findings are presented in a narrative format. The narrative describes the ‘lifeworld’ of the coach and seeks to identify the ‘essential features’ of community coaching in this case. Specifically, the narrative illustrates a dichotomy in the lifeworld of the coach; between a frenetic practical delivery mode visible in the public arena and a ‘hidden’ largely unknown, private world used predominantly for planning and organising. For this case study coach, the essence of community coaching lay in two complementary activities; planning and then delivering fun based activities that achieved social, health and sporting outcomes. Additionally, interacting with others, such as parents, carers and teachers was identified as an essential feature of this coach's experience.     

“I’m a completely different person now”: Extraordinary experiences and personal transformations in sport

Many sport programs aim to positively impact participants’ lives, but there is little understanding of how sport leads to those changes. The purpose of this study was to examine an extraordinary experience and the participants’ interpretations of that experience as well as their feelings of personal transformation through the experience. In doing so, the authors developed an understanding of how sport can be used to create meaningful life changes at the individual level. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 past participants of a long distance cycling ride that raised money and awareness for cancer research. Data analysis included three rounds of coding. Participants reported that the unusualness and sense of newness of the ride, the high levels of emotional intensity experienced, and the deep interpersonal connections developed led to a sense of empowerment and new meaning and purpose in life. Results indicate that extraordinary experiences contribute to lasting personal transformations, beyond intended behavior changes, within sport and out of sport. The characteristics of extraordinary experiences that contribute to personal transformation are discussed, as are suggestions for sport managers to leverage extraordinary experiences to create positive personal transformations.     

Is hockey just a game? Contesting meanings of the ice hockey life projects through a career-threatening injury

This study is situated within an existential–narrative theoretical framework to examine the impact of career-threatening injury on professional ice hockey players’ well-being and career construction. Professional ice hockey culture is construed as a privileged space characterised by hegemonic masculinity, fierce competition as well as high-risk behaviours often resulting in sports injuries. In this paper, we analyse two players’ life stories with a particular focus on injury as a boundary situation involving social and temporal breakdown and re-evaluation of meaning of sporting life projects. Emergent narratives surrounding existential themes of loss of meaning and loneliness in the face of injury were analysed in connection with players’ search for authenticity and realignment with self-concept. Each player developed resistant narratives to the dominant ethos of professional sport in order to restore well-being and sense of self. The relational aspects of injury are highlighted in practical recommendations.     

These Sporting Lives: Football Autobiographies 1945–1980

The football autobiography, often dismissed as a formulaic source whose poor quality and uncertain provenance renders it peripheral, should be recognized as one of the main types of evidence for the study of representations of the footballer's image. This examines the problems inherent in the use of these autobiographies as historical sources and proposes strategies for reading them. The emergence of the British professional footballer's autobiography after 1945 is placed in the wider context of the autobiographical tradition in order to understand its narrative forms and concerns. It is argued that these autobiographies construct the dominant consensual ideal of masculinity, but that they also reveal the emergence of alternative masculine constructions that are part of wider cultural shifts.     

The Mediation of Spectator Sport

Abstract

This study employs the theory of “media logic” and the method of hermeneutical criticism to demonstrate some effects of a major social institution, television, on the “text” of experiencing spectator sports. The study finds that the medium of television makes spectator sports into an experience which incorporates narrative, intimacy, commodification, and rigid time segmentation. The conventions imposed by television on spectator sports are presented here as powerfully affecting the meanings which televised sports have for their audiences.     

Charity sport event participants and fundraising: An examination of constraints and negotiation strategies

Charity sport events provide participants with a meaningful event experience, and the opportunity to support a charitable cause is a critical component of this experience. This opportunity often involves fundraising, either as a requirement of event participation or as an option to supplement registration. However, fundraising as part of charity sport event participation is a difficult task. In the current research, the authors examine the challenges faced by charity sport event participants in soliciting donations, and the effort made to overcome these challenges. Constraint negotiation served as a theoretical framework to guide this examination. Semi-structured interviews (N = 27) were conducted with Triathlon Pink participants to discuss their fundraising process and their attitudes towards fundraising. Four constraints were revealed: lack of receptivity among potential donors, perceived lack of money from potential donors, discomfort in asking, and lack of time. These constraints were negotiated through three strategies: narrative, prizes and incentives, and emphasising that any bit helps. Based upon the themes uncovered, charity sport event managers can implement increased education of fundraisers and point of sale donations within the registration process.     

Sport governance encounters: Insights from lived experiences

This study explored sport governance practice from the lived experience of one informant spanning a 30-year period in the governance of two sport organisations (basketball and cricket). Hermeneutic phenomenology, the methodological framework used for this study, seeks to grasp the everyday world, and draw insight and meaning from it. The method involves a series of in-depth interviews with one research participant, supplemented by document analysis. Interviews were analysed using an interpretative process which blended the world views of both the participant and researchers. The participant lived through an era of increasing professionalisation within sport. His narrative, which tapped into his governance expertise at state, national and international levels, provides insights into the transition from an amateur to a commercial culture, referred to in this paper as ‘two worlds colliding’. From this narrative, three related themes were identified and labelled, ‘volunteer and cultural encounters’; ‘structural encounters’; and ‘adversarial encounters’. In drawing on hermeneutic philosophy, and highlighting that which has been hidden from view, direction for future research and practice within the sport governance domain is offered. These directions invite scholars to think about future sport governance research as it relates to federated structures and how collaborative governance theory can sharpen the focus in this domain.     

道家健康养生文化以及对休闲体育的现实意义

道家养生文化对人体健康的解读,发现其蕴含的观点对于我们今天的生活仍然有重要的指导意义.除了体育运动和合理的饮食之外,养生和生存环境、精神状态、心理素质、生活方式等多方面因素有关,了解道家养生文化,合理应用到今天的休闲体育中来,可使我们从容面对社会发展带来的挑战和压力.     

Transforming,storing and consuming athletic experiences: a coach’s narrative of using a video application

The analysis of sport performance in competitive contexts has become synonymous with the use of a range of software applications and hardware e.g. heart rate monitors and gps systems. With the prevalence of technology in mind, a small but growing corpus of literature has begun to consider this phenomenon and its influence upon the coaching process. This study adds to this literature by detailing the autoethnographic experiences of a case study coach; Derek. A contextualised and richly described narrative account of Derek’s experience of using coaching applications is provided. Analysis of Derek’s narrative suggests that technology can be a useful means by which individuals make sense of their experience. Specifically, (1) technology can be a ‘ready-to-hand’ instrument that enhances the coaching process. Unfortunately, (2) technology may become the only and ‘calculative’ means by which individuals come to understand their performance. In such instances, it is important to note that (3) the videos we use to understand our performance are transformed and incomplete representations of lived athletic experiences. Thus, Derek’s story illustrates how technology can be both an enabler and barrier to athletes who wish to holistically understand their own lived experiences and engage in coach-athlete relationships. The accompanying analysis draws upon concepts from Heideggerian philosophy to add insight into the use of technology within the coaching process. In so doing, the study prompts coaches to critically view their coach-athlete relationships as situated in a wider world which contains, and can be mediated by, technology. In addition, Derek’s story (re)directs researchers and coaching practitioners interested in technology to a useful literature (philosophy of technology) which may further inform their understanding of coach-athlete relationships.     

Effects of confidence and anxiety on flow state in competition

Abstract

Confidence and anxiety are important variables that underlie the experience of flow in sport. Specifically, research has indicated that confidence displays a positive relationship and anxiety a negative relationship with flow. The aim of this study was to assess potential direct and indirect effects of confidence and anxiety dimensions on flow state in tennis competition. A sample of 59 junior tennis players completed measures of Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2d and Flow State Scale-2. Following predictive analysis, results showed significant positive correlations between confidence (intensity and direction) and anxiety symptoms (only directional perceptions) with flow state. Standard multiple regression analysis indicated confidence as the only significant predictor of flow. The results confirmed a protective function of confidence against debilitating anxiety interpretations, but there were no significant interaction effects between confidence and anxiety on flow state.     

A post-social conceptual framework for exploring object narratives in sport organisations

In this article we propose a theoretical framework for narrative analysis that gives voice to objects in sport organisations. Despite considerable interest in the symbolic and mnemonic potency of some sporting objects – most notably memorabilia – many organisational objects go unnoticed, whilst little attention has been paid to methods for gathering stories from inanimate objects. We suggest that material objects in sport organisations participate in narrative production and therefore constitute a rich investigative site. We adopt a post-social approach to narrative methodology where objects are recognised as non-human actors in organisational sense-making, not as narrative repositories that ‘contain’ stories and memories. A three-domain research framework is developed recommending an approach to eliciting an object narrative within a sport organisation. First, object materiality exposes the significant networks of forces, materials and people – and therefore episodes and actors – that engage with and through objects. Second, since people and objects are enmeshed in sequenced, workplace activities, object practice allows organisational agents to define what stories objects can tell whilst objects reciprocally bound the scope of human performance. Third, object biography provides a strategy to map the connections and transitions that occur over the lifecourse of an object, which reveals a changing web of organisational relations.     

‘Super Bore’: The Canadian Media and the Grey Cup-Super Bowl Comparison

Abstract

A closer look at football illuminates some important truths in the Can-Am experience. Central to this discovery is the notion of the Grey Cup as Canada’s anti-Super Bowl. Complete with folksy traditions and understated pageantry, the Grey Cup is emblematically Canadian and has historically served as a sharp rebuke to American cultural imperialism and excess, represented so perfectly by the Super Bowl. Like many aspects of Can-Am relations, however, the Super Bowl experience is not a simple narrative. Many Canadians have not only integrated the Super Bowl into their sporting calendars but prefer it to the domestic product. The growing cultural influence of the Super Bowl north of the border made national headlines in 2015 when ratings revealed that more Canadians, per capita, watched the Super Bowl than Americans. Traditionally the attitudes reflected in Canadian media demonstrate a clear bias that favoured the Grey Cup over the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl’s prominence in Canada was written by Canadian sports scribes as regrettable and undeserved while the virtuous Grey Cup, they asserted, went under-appreciated, not just globally but increasingly domestically. This chauvinistic rhetoric supports and adds to the existing research that focuses on Canadian reaction to American mass culture.     

Duct tape,icy hot & paddles: narratives of initiation onto US male sport teams

In the United States, initiation or hazing activities in high school and university sport are increasingly being recognized as a serious issue facing coaches and sport administrators. These events include humiliation, degradation or abuse of new team members, presumed to enhance team bonding. This study is grounded in Waldron and Krane's conceptual framework linking social goal orientation and overconformity to team norms. We conducted focus group interviews with nine former male high-school athletes examining their hazing experiences. A narrative approach to the data analysis was used to provide a comprehensive account of their combined experiences. The data were integrated into monologues describing experiences of being hazed, one positively perceived and one negatively perceived experience. A third monologue presents the perspective of the athlete doing the hazing. These stories highlight the perceived rationale and acceptance of hazing, the emotional toll of being hazed and the power dynamics that allow hazing to continue.     

What spurs curriculum making in physical education? Four narratives of experienced teachers

Anchored in the narrative inquiry tradition, this paper examines commonly held motives about curriculum making from the perspectives of four experienced physical education teachers in Korea. Field texts were collected throughout by employing narrative research tools such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, class observations and documents analyses, and transformed into research texts using broadening, burrowing, and storying and restorying as suggested by Connelly and Clandinin. For experienced physical educators, this paper illuminates what motivates curriculum making as a narrative phenomenon storied and restoried over time. Different stories produced different motives of curriculum making, and a number of issues related to teacher development for curriculum making emerged.     

《远大前程》:叙述、聚焦与悬念

《远大前程》是英国作家查尔斯·狄更斯的力作之一。狄更斯在这部小说的创作中展示了高超的叙事技巧 ,利用第一人称回顾性叙事中叙述自我和经验自我主体意识分离及其相关信息“缺失”的特点 ,在小说中设置了一系列悬念 ,并使这些悬念成为推动故事情节发展的动力 ,使小说成为现代叙事学意义上的杰作之一。